Chess Story

“Rook to a6.”
“Um.. Bishop to... this square.”
“Knight to h8.”
“Alright, I’ll just... wait, now my king can’t...”
Amber looked up from the chess board, smirking at Iekika. The imp groaned, rubbing her temples.
“Ah, shit.”
“Ah, ah, ah!” Amber quickly said, leaning forward and wagging a brass finger in Iekika’s face. “That's not proper chess terminology.” Iekika sighed, reaching forward and tipping over her king.
“Alright, alright, checkmate.”
She let out another sigh, adjusting the way her legs sat on her curled up, bean bag-esque tail. The chess board, sitting in between the two on a slightly crumpled cardboard box, was dotted with black and white pieces. Most of which were on Iekika’s side of the board. And most of which were Amber’s.
“Alright, another win for me!” Amber taunted, scooping the pieces back up and beginning to reset them to their original positions. “You wanna go again?”
Iekika grimaced, biting her lower mouth’s lip. “I mean... if you want, sure.” She didn’t want to play, but figured it might make Amber happy if she just played along. Amber, however, wasn’t convinced.
“You sure?” She asked, cocking her head to the side and leaning forward a bit. “Now that I’m looking, you seem kinda... out of it.”
Iekika quickly shook her head, holding up a claw towards Amber. “No, no, I’m fine. Let’s play again.”
Amber shrugged, still seeming unconvinced, but finished arranging the pieces and spun the board around.
“Here, you can go first this time.”
“Because you suck”, Iekika thought to herself, frowning as she made the first move.
The game went on for a few minutes, pieces shifting back and forth across the board like infantry on a battlefield, which sort of makes sense since that’s what Chess is kind of based on. One by one, little ceramic figurines of horses and towers and crowns were knocked off the board, until finally the king was surrounded, with no way out.
Iekika’s king.
“Damnit...” Iekika muttered, starting to pick up her pieces. “Or... checkmate, my bad...” Amber nodded, a frown present on her face as she too picked up the pieces to the game.
“Good game, Kiki.” Amber said, sliding the pieces into an empty cookie tin before handing the tin to Iekika. “You almost had me there, near the end.”
Iekika shook her head. “No, no, you were going to win no matter what I did.” she mumbled, dropping her pieces into the tin and closing it. “I’m just... garbage at this, I guess.”
Amber sighed, closing her eyes. “Aw, come on now, don’t say that.”
“It’s true!!” Iekika exclaimed, throwing her claws up a little bit. “Every time I play this, I...I... what was that phrase you used, yesterday?....” Amber opened her mouth to answer, but Iekika cut her off, yelling “Eat shit! That’s what it was.”
Amber tried to remember when, the previous day, she had used the phrase ‘eat shit’, but Iekika went on. “The only reason I play is so you can have fun, because we all know I’ll never be good enough to have any fun with this!”
Iekika sighed, leaning back on her tail and rubbing her forehead. “And it’s not just chess... Every time I try and learn or do something new I just... i suck at it. And I hate that, not being good at anything...”
Amber sat there, mildly shaken. After a few moments she folded her arms, leaning forward on the chess board.
“I wouldn’t say you’re not good at anything. You’re a pretty skilled fighter, for one.”
Iekika made a dissatisfied sounding grumble from her chest mouth. “Yeah, but you could be just as good as me in like... 2 weeks, so what does it matter...”
Amber paused. “I’d say 2 months, minimum, but you’re kinda leading into my point. If I fought you, you’d kick my ass. Sure, I could train and learn, but it would take time to be as good as you.”
“But eventually, ” Iekika argued back, “You’d just be better than me.”
“Exactly!” Amber exclaimed, laughing a little. “That’s how practice works! If you practiced chess for a few months, you’d probably be as good as me, too! You can’t expect to be perfect at everything the first go around.”
Iekika’s face took on a grimace as she looked around, trying to dodge Amber's eyeline.
“I mean... you’re... you’re right, but... I should still be better than this, at least.”
Amber shook her head. “Honestly? No, probably not. You’ve beaten me once or twice, and i’ve played this game for years. I wouldn’t expect you to be much better, right now.”
Iekika searched for a response, but she was lost in a sea of thoughts without a map. After a minute she let out a long breath, letting her arms drop into her lap and looking down.
“... it was so much easier back on the island, when I just had to be psychic.” She murmured. “That’s something I was just good at. But I was bored with that, so when I ended up here I thought things would be better...” She shook her head. “Now everything’s just frustrating.”
Amber nodded, also resting her hands in her lap. “This is the first time in your life things aren’t just coming naturally to you. You’re being challenged, and maybe you aren’t used to that.” She reached out, lifting Iekika’s chin with her metal hand so they were looking eye to eyes.
“But that doesn’t mean you’re just bad at everything, or even that you’re bad at this one thing. You just need some time to learn, alright?”
Iekika smiled a little, her eye closed. “I can’t really argue against that, can I?”
Amber shook her head, smiling back. “Nope. Checkmate.”